Yummy Cake

Paden. Need I say more?

SURPRISE!!!

My sister Danielle came to visit last week. She and her husband moved to Wisconsin for medical school in July. All the adults knew she was coming but none of her nieces and nephews. I know that my kids have really missed her. Almost everyday they ask to talk to her on the computer. It was really fun to see them get so excited. I taped the surprise moments of my kids and my sister's kids. I wasn't there for the other kids. I know the videos don't show all the reactions but you get the idea. It still makes me teary. It was a lot of fun!!


First up is Paden.

Next is Ellie.

The Hunter kids.

Tap Class

Ellie started tap classes a few weeks ago and I thought I would share with you. It's really fun to watch.


First is her bow. Nothing horribly exciting but still cute. Next is the dance. The Monster Mash.

Paden's Interview

Sorry this has taken a while to get on here. We had to re-do this interview. This is my Padey!! He is such a funny guy and I just love him. He was bitten by the same talking bug that Ellie was bitten by. My favorite part is his thinking face. You'll see what I mean. He does it all the time and it cracks me up. I was hoping he would do it on his interview and he didn't disappoint. Enjoy.

Ellie's Interview

This is my Ellie. She is 5 years old and she loves to talk. I hope you enjoy!

Riley's Interview

When I was growing up my parents would interview us kids. All we had was a tape recorder and my dad would ask us questions and we would ramble on about whatever we felt like talking about. I remember as I got older it was always fun to hear those tapes. It was so fun to hear the songs we made up or just the random topics we would discuss. I thought it would be fun to do the same with my kids. I started with Riley. Ellie and Paden were already in bed but little mister Riley was wide awake and in the mood for an interview. I will get the interviews with the other 2 kids up soon but this post is all about my youngest.

Mmmmm...Smoothies!!

Seaside, School, Surgery, Sick and Smiles!!

So we have had a lot going on in our little family and it has been awhile since I filled you all in on it. First off we made a couple of visits out to Seaside. The first time was just our little family. We went to Tillamook and then up to Seaside. We really had a great time. The second time we went was with my whole family minus Danielle and Clinton (tears). It was supposed to be raining and chilly but turned out to be an absolutely amazing day. It was perfect weather and we sat on the beach and played and played the day away.

Moo Moo Ellie and Farmer Paden at the cheese factory.This is the kiddos and me.

Kirk and the older kiddos. This is Ellie's new pose.

Kirk and the kids getting all set on the carousel.

You can see Ellie in the background there. Kirk was a little ways away from her.

Here's Paden enjoying his ride.

Cousin Ella. She is number 3 for my brother, David.

Cousin Hannah. She belongs to my brother, Derek.

Here are 3 of the moms waiting. Hannah's mom, Carrie, Me, and Ella's mom, Sara.

The day after Seaside was Ellie's first day of Kindergarten. She was soooo excited to finally go to school. It was all she could talk about the whole morning. Even though she was a concerned that she might be a little allergic to stinky feet. I love that girl!!

Here she is ready to head out the door. Kirk's family always took pictures in front of this tree on the first day of school. We couldn't break tradition.

Here she is in her classroom. I wanted a picture with her teacher but he was helping some students. Mr. Modrall is Ellie's teacher and the cool thing about him is that he was also Kirk's Kindergarten teacher. Cool, huh?

Last week Paden went in to have surgery. He was born with Hypospadias. That means that his urethra didn't make it all the way to the tip of his penis. It came out of the bottom of the penis. A couple of weeks before his 1st birthday he had the repair done. Unfortunately, the repair didn't hold and he sprung a leak. So he went in and had the repair done again. This time they closed him up with a flap. Fingers crossed it holds!! Anyway, it was supposed to be a day surgery but he was bleeding just a little more than they wanted so they put a pressure dressing on him and kept him overnight. He was such a trooper and all the nurses fell in love with him. He is doing great now. He complains a bit about it hurting but really can you blame him? It gets less and less each day.

Here he is in his bed. He didn't spend a lot of time there. He was more interested in running around the room. It was nice when they finally took the IV out. I was tired of untangling him all the time.

This is actually where he spent a lot of his time.

Ellie has been sick the last couple of days. It has been really pathetic. I hate it when they are sick because it makes me feel so helpless. I don't like that I can't just fix it. Luckily today she has been feeling a lot better and has actually started eating and keeping things down. YAY!!!

Isn't that so pathetic?

On the upside Riley has been doing fantastic!! He is such a charmer and a really sweet boy. We absolutely love having him in our lives. At his 2 month appointment he was weighing in at a hefty 13 lbs. 14 1/2 ozs. He was 25 ins. long. That puts him in the 90th percentile for weight and the 97th for height. Those are numbers we have never heard in reference to our children. The older 2 both maxed out at the 50th percentile and dropped down from there. We definitely love our chubby boy!! He never has a moment's peace either. His brother and sister are completely smitten with him. I swear Riley will end up cross eyed because they are always in his face. I have included a little Riley video just to give you an idea of how his day goes.

But through everything that has been going on here we have had a lot of smiles!!And I mean a lot of smiles.A WHOLE lot of smiles!!

I sure love these kids!

The Pear Bread

Everyone has been asking me for this recipe. It is SUPER yummy!! It is from allrecipes.com. The only thing I changed was I diced the pears instead of shredding them and I also used 3 cups instead of 2. Also bake it at 350 instead of 325. I love allrecipes.com. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as my family has.


Pear Bread I

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
2 cups peeled shredded pears
1 cup chopped pecans
2 teaspoons vanilla extract


DIRECTIONS
In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Make a well in the center of the bowl.
In a separate bowl combine the oil, eggs, sugar, grated pears, pecans, and vanilla. Blend well. Add to well of dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 8x5x3 inch loaf pans.
Bake in a preheated 325 degree F (165 degrees C) oven for one hour and 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack before removing from the loaf pans.

It's A Boy!!

Well it finally happened and I am finally blogging about it. Better late than never though, right? On Tuesday June 30th at 5:04 am Riley James Tracy joined our little family weighing in at 8lbs 11Oz. and 20 ins. long. He has been a great addition to our family so far and we can't get enough of him. Here's how it all went down. On Monday our little family went to Clackamas Town Center to get out and walk around a little. I was having contractions but didn't think too much of it because that had happened so often before. By the time we were done at the mall the contractions were getting stronger but still I didn't get my hopes up. We got home and hung around for a little while so the kids could have some quiet time. After quiet time we decided to go for a walk around the block because it was such a nice day and I was antsy. By this time the contractions were every 15 mins or so and still pretty strong. You think I would be excited, but I was still skeptical. We got home and needed a few things from the store so I headed over to Win Co. About halfway through the store I was having to stop and breathe through contractions. This is when I started thinking it could be the real thing. I got home from the store and got most of the groceries put away before I needed to just sit down. For the rest of the evening I sat there. I really wanted to make sure it was the real thing. I had had so many fake outs that I didn't want to go to the hospital just to be sent home. By 8:30 things were really starting to hurt. I called the hospital a little after 9 and let them know I was coming in. We got there a little after 10 and I was at a 3 1/2 pushing 4. By 11pm we were admitted and I was waiting for my epidural. I am no fan of pain and wanted out of it as soon as possible. By midnight I was numbed up nicely and taking a nap. Around 4am I was at a 6 and my water broke. With Paden I went from a 5 to 10 in 5 minutes after my water broke so we were expecting the same thing this time. Riley had different plans. His head was still turned to the side a little making it difficult for him to come down all the way. After about 40 mins the nurse helped me on to my side and that was all Riley needed to come down the rest of the way. She told me to do a practice push and then instantly told me to stop because the baby was coming out. The Dr came in the room and also told me to push. He quickly told me to stop too so that he could get his gloves on. Once gloved up he told me to push again and out came the baby's head. He told me to push once more and the rest of him came out. After making me wait for so long once it was time to come out he practically fell out. It was a very easy delivery. I was very happy about that. He was healthy and strong and had the right number of everything. A bonus was that he didn't have the hypospadius like his brother. Yay!! Everything went well and has gone well since. We love our little Riley. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Here is the belly just a couple of days before he was born.

Here I am officially admitted into the hospital. This was actually about 3am after my mom and sister got there.

Out he came. Sorry if this is too graphic for anyone. Nothing's showing. Just my leg.

He has GREAT lungs.

He cried and cried when he first came out. It was so cute.

Here we are admiring him.

Such a handsome boy. We have pictures like this with our other 2 as well. Just our little tradition. Here is big sister Ellie getting a turn holding him. It is hard to keep her away from him. And big brother Paden taking a turn. Our 3 munchkins. This is how we find them most of the time. They are never far from Riley.

I got tagged again

In this tag you are supposed to go to your 6th file and pick the 6th picture and explain it. Then you are supposed to tag people. I don't like tagging specific people so I just send this out to those of you that want to do it. It's always fun to look at pictures again.

This is Ellie's birthday cake from last year. Which reminds me that I need to put up the pictures from her birthday this year. This was also the first cake I decorated all by myself.

Where does he get this stuff?

Get ready, I have to talk about Paden again. This kid cracks me up. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff but he is so funny. At least that's what I think. I have a few little stories about this boy. Back to Christmas. One of our decorations is a fiber optic Santa in a truck with a few reindeer and a Christmas tree. Well last year Paden broke a couple of the antlers off the reindeer. So this year the rule was that only Mommy and Daddy could touch the Santa truck. One night after bath Paden was getting his jammies on. They happened to be his Batman jammies. As soon as we were finished zipping them up he walked over and started to play with the Santa truck. I asked him if he was supposed to play with the truck and this was his reply, "But I'm Batman". I then told him it didn't matter who he was he still couldn't play with the truck. Then I promptly turned around so I could start laughing.

A few weeks later we had some spaghetti for dinner. Paden finished his pretty quick and walked over to ask Daddy for a bite.

Paden: I have a bite please.

Daddy: Sorry Buddy. Daddy is a little sick and I don't want you to get sick too.

Paden: But I already coughing. (Fake cough, cough)

Daddy: (laughing)

I don't know how he comes back with stuff so fast. He never misses a beat.


One day Paden came into our room pretty early. I had gone walking that morning but got back while everyone was still sleeping so I curled up on the couch with a blanket. Anyway, Kirk turned on some cartoons for Paden. A few minutes later he told Paden he was going to go take a shower and asked if Paden wanted to come too. Paden's response? "I can't take a shower because I am just a small boy. Small boys just take baths." He's just a small boy. Not a little boy, a small boy. I thought that was so funny.

The kids love to sit on the heater with a blanket. It's a Tracy family tradition. Kirk has passed that on so faithfully. The other day during quiet time the heater turned on. I didn't even notice. I did however notice Paden trying to open his door. Kirk let him know that it was quiet time and he needed to play in his room. Right away Paden's response was, "But the heater's on". We started laughing and then Kirk went and showed Paden that he has his own heater in his room. Ever since then I walk into Paden's room after quiet time and find his little blanket and pillow laying on the floor in front of the heater.

I don't know if I am the only one that finds this funny or not but I think the kid is a hoot. I can't wait to see what he has in store for us. Sometimes it makes me a little scared to think that he is only 2 1/2 and can have a comeback in no time flat. It makes me wonder if I want to know what he has in store. I am so grateful to have my little monkeys. And I am extra grateful for all the laughs.

2 years in the making!!!

As many of you know Kirk and I bought a house almost 3 years ago. We took 7 months remodeling the house and moved in 3 days before Christmas 2006. The remodel was of course bigger and more expensive than we had originally planned and we ended up running out of money. We were able to get the house into a livable condition and continued to do the little jobs that were left. Well there are still little jobs to be done but the biggest thing of all was recently completed. Yes we ran out of money prior to our kitchen being done. For 2 years we lived with what I liked to call a high class camp kitchen. It worked and I was very grateful that we had what we did. But let me tell you this, it in no way compares to a real kitchen. First I will take you down memory lane before showing you the final result.

Here is the cooking area and the pots and pans "cabinet". Nice, huh? We didn't have a full size stove and oven. We had the toaster oven and the single burner. It's hard to see but it's there right in front of the tea kettle.

This is our sink and where we stored the canned food and such.

Here is the computer area and the door to the basement.

Well now that you've been reminded of where we came from allow me to introduce you to NOW!!!

Here is our new cooking area and our real cabinets for pots and pans and all sorts of other things!! It's totally awesome!

Our new sink!! And yes that is a DISHWASHER!!!! It's awesome!

And here is our pantry. I love it. It is so nice to have so much space.

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the desk area. We have 2 large cabinets above the desk and a new desk that isn't falling apart. It is so fantastic and truly a dream come true. I still find myself going and standing in the kitchen just to look at it. I also open and close the cupboards just because they are there. I love coming home from the grocery store and being able to put the things away and not just on the counter. Before on the counter was put away. I am so grateful that we finally saved up enough money to make this dream come true.

Pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

Okay, we finally got our camera program back on the computer so here are the last few months of our lives. I am not going to write a ton. Just a few explanations. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The kids helped Kirk rake the front yard. As you can tell by their faces they were having a BLAST!! I love these pictures. I had such a hard time narrowing them down. That's why there are so many.

Paden was almost a pirate instead of Batman for Halloween. The whole thing was so cute on him. He still wears it now.

We FINALLY got our kitchen!! This is a teaser. I am not actually going to show any kitchen pictures yet because this is going to be my next posting. Sorry Lindsey.

During the kitchen install the kids had many a picnic in the living room. They loved it, my carpet suffered.

Ellie and Daddy started having dates at Home Depot. This was their first project. These activities are the first Saturday of the month and they are free. Kids ages 5 to 12. They let Ellie sneak in a little early.

We went to see Santa at Mall 205. He is a great Santa. We actually got in trouble for taking this picture because we didn't pay for them to take a picture. You can only take your own pictures if you pay them to take a picture too. Personally I wasn't going to pay 20 dollars for a picture of both our kids staring off into the distance. I'd rather take my own for free.

We too were hit by the "Winter Blast 2008". Here is Paden all ready to head outdoors.

This was just the first day so things really hadn't started yet.

Here was after a couple of days. Apparently our ducks a really stupid. They forgot to fly south!

Here are the kids sledding in our yard. It is hard to see but our patio actually has steps up to it. It is not level with the ground. Just to give a little idea of how deep things were.

Ellie's snow angel.

Paden's

You can see a little easier how deep things were. My car was completely snowed in. We couldn't get it out for a week or so.

Just some of the pile up on our water jugs.

Here are some Christmas pictures. I won't talk about every one.

The kids had so much fun with the snow. Unfortunately they both had pretty good cold through most of it so they didn't get to play in it as much as I would have liked to. They both ended up getting ear infections.

Paden was unfortunately allergic to the antibiotic. He was covered head to toe in horrible hives. The Dr told us to use Zyrtec because it was the best antihistamine. Although Paden looked horrible he didn't itch. He would just start to get itchy when it was time to give the medicine again. He cleared up in 3 days. I was so grateful!! The pictures don't do them justice.

He stayed in good spirits the whole time. I was so happy that he wasn't miserable.

And last but not least here is a picture of the belly. This is 24 weeks!! I don't know what the face is that I am making. Oh well.

There you have it. I am hoping that our computer doesn't crash on us again. Not that this very long post wasn't fun and all but I like the fast ones better!!